Psalms 37:22 (KJV)

What does Psalms 37:22 mean?

Psalms 37:22 presents a contrast between two outcomes under God’s judgment. Those whom God blesses have a lasting place in the land, while those whom he curses lose their place. The verse presents that difference as the result of God’s action.

The picture of inheriting land would have been familiar to the psalm’s first hearers: land was a source of food, a home, and a place for families to live. Following verse 21, which contrasts borrowing with giving, verse 22 looks beyond those actions to the two groups’ different futures.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 37:22

• “inherit” — יָרַשׁ (yarash): This word can mean to take possession of or occupy land. Here the idea is not limited to receiving property from a parent; it pictures having a place to live.
• “earth” — אֶרֶץ (erets): This word can mean either the earth broadly or a particular land. For the psalm’s first hearers, it could bring to mind the land where they lived.
• “off” — כָּרַת (karat): This word carries the sense of cutting or cutting off. In the phrase “shall be cut off,” the image is of being removed rather than remaining in the land.

Why Psalms 37:22 matters

• The verse places its contrast in a wider discussion of the future of those who do right and those who do wrong. Earlier, verse 9 uses the same contrast between being “cut off” and inheriting “the earth.”
• Generosity belongs to the surrounding picture. Verse 21 describes a person who “sheweth mercy, and giveth” just before verse 22 speaks of those blessed by God.
• The word “his” supplies the link between the two outcomes. Both “blessed of him” and “cursed of him” point back to the Lord, named in verse 20.